Suits: Yesterday's Gone (3x12)

I am a squealing ball of happiness right now. I cannot even explain it. You know what I love most about Suits? Every single character has such an interesting relationship with all of the other characters. And yeah, I live and breathe for Harvey and Mike’s relationship. But Harvey and Jessica – super interesting! Harvey and Louis! Louis and Rachel! Louis and Mike! Mike and Jessica! Donna and Louis! Donna and Harvey! It's just a never-ending list of very fascinating and complicated relationship dynamics. I adore it. This episode really showcased these relationships, and all their messy complexities. Let's talk about the plot!

So, Jessica's ex-husband, Quentin, has passed away. He named Jessica and Harvey co-executors of his will. Lisa, Quentin's wife at the time of his death, has an understandably rocky relationship with Jessica. Lisa wants to sell Quentin's drug to a company, but Jessica says it's a terrible idea, and is betraying everything Quentin would have wanted. Harvey assures Jessica that he can handle things, if this situation is too personal for her.

The legal council for the company that wants to buy the drug is angry when Jessica sneaks in a proviso making them promise to finish developing the drug. They start to play dirty – turns out, Quentin may not have been entirely sound of mind when Jessica was signed on to manage the will. Jessica manages to convince the court that she’s doing what Quentin wanted her to do. Jessica and Lisa end up on the same page, even if their relationship will never be perfect.

Meanwhile, Louis confronts Mike. He tells Mike that he knows he didn’t go to Harvard, and that he invited Harvard's ethics professor to give a guest lecture. This is the professor famous for never giving an A+ to any of his students. Louis threatens that if he doesn't come up and talk to Mike during the lecture, Louis will know the truth and expose Mike for the fraud he is. Mike panics, and immediately tells Harvey. Harvey tells him to lie low.

Mike and Rachel, who are now living together, decide that something needs to be done. Mike tells Louis that he's right, that the ethics professor never gave him that A+. But he did go to Harvard. He just failed that class because he never went to class, and memorizing the text book didn't work for this professor's finals. Mike says he cheated and changed his grade. Louis believes him, but he doesn't forgive him for what he's done. Then, Rachel talks to Louis and begs him to forgive Mike. Somehow, Louis is able to find forgiveness for Mike, but he tells Mike that he needs to apologize to the ethics professor, too, or Louis will have to tell on him.

Mike tells Harvey what happened, and Harvey is angry that Mike acted without Harvey's say-so, and let things backfire so spectacularly. Harvey immediately rushes to Harvard to threaten the ethics professor. However, it doesn't work. The professor calls Harvey's bluff and says he's going to give the lecture, no matter what Harvey says. Harvey comes back and tells Mike there's no hope. Mike is upset, but he tells Harvey that he'll go tell Louis the truth and beg him to let it go. Harvey says he'll go down with Mike, but Mike refuses to let Harvey give everything up for him.

However, Harvey pulls through with a solution after all. He tells Louis that if Mike tells the professor what happened, it will ruin his chances to ever study law again. Harvey appeals to Louis, as a friend, not to give Mike up. And Louis listens.

Okay. Let's talk about the awesomeness that is this episode. Because holy oh my God. I'm trying to think of something to complain about, and I really can't… I suppose I could question the conspicuous lack of Scottie in this episode, but actually, she was mentioned, and it makes sense to not pile up the episode with every story line possible.

In fact, I rather liked how they handled Scottie in the episode. Harvey tries to think of a gift to welcome her to the firm, and he presents her with an expensive bottle of scotch. Donna says that it's too impersonal, and gets engraved glasses to go along with it. Donna clearly wants Harvey to be happy, but there's still the suggestion that she feels something for Harvey, and that she hasn't let him go. I love this tantalizing possibility.

And everything else about the episode was awesome, too. I'll try to limit myself to just a few things, because I could probably talk on about this for a very long time.

Harvey was probably the most interesting part of the episode for me. Think about it – one of these plots is basically Jessica's problem, and the other one is Mike's. Nothing’s really happening to him, and yet he is so tied up in the lives of these two good friends, that he's emotionally invested anyway.

Jessica's story line was really touching, because we got to see a more emotional side of her. When she tried to take the decisions away from Harvey, he reminded her that she took over the decisions for him concerning Scottie, and now that it's personal for her, she's being a hypocrite. Essentially, Harvey is being the logical, professional one while Jessica takes things personally. I love it. It's an interesting dynamic to explore in their relationship. The end scene, with Jessica and Harvey together in Harvey's office, was just such a touching way to cement their friendship and respect for one another.

And Mike. Jesus. His scenes with Harvey were really tugging at my heartstrings. My favorite part was when he just expected Harvey to be able to come up with an answer. He has such faith in Harvey as a superhero, and it was this really crushing moment for both of them when Harvey couldn't deliver. One of the most intense scenes was when Harvey was talking to the professor and you realize that Harvey's going to lose. He can't pull his usual power tricks. I think Harvey was upset to have let Mike down. He feels responsible for him in a way that I think even he has trouble understanding. I don't think it's an accident that Harvey's cover story for going to Harvard was that his brother was in trouble. Mike is Harvey's brother, in every way that matters.

I had a lot of respect and compassion for Louis in this episode as well. That's a tricky feat to pull off – his motivations and decisions are directly counter to the goals of our protagonists, and yet I totally get where he's coming from. Mike's a fraud. Louis doesn't yet know the extent of his lies, but he knows that Mike has broken the law, and for Louis, the law is sacred. You know, this episode really made me start thinking about the endgame for this show. What Mike said to Harvey is true – they're playing on borrowed time. What's going to happen when someone inevitably finds out about Mike, and can't keep the secret any longer?

Rachel's conversation with Louis was another highlight for me. Rachel is just such a wonderful character, and her relationship with Louis is one of the more strangely relateable ones on the show. In all, I think we got to see how much both Rachel and Harvey care for Mike personally, and how much they respect him, despite what they know he's done. I appreciate this show's bravery in showing us another person, Louis, who could never be okay with Mike's secret. That makes for some good TV, people. I'm very excited.

Okay, I’ll stop. I could talk for days. But yeah, this was a very, very good one.

9.5/10